Bulldog Extruder

So I've heard lots of good things about the bulldog extruders, and I'm pretty much settled on picking one up. That is unless anyone can suggest something better that I'm not aware of. From what I can tell the only difference between the lite and the XL is direct drive vs gear reduction. Since I already have a perfectly good Nema 17 motor with a planetary gear reduction, is there any point in buying the XL when I could just swap the motor out and save $70? If there's more to the XL package then I'll just go that route, but if not then I'd rather not waste a perfectly good gear motor I already have.

I have had the BullDog XL in my printer for over a year. It has been absolutely reliable. Worth every penny...

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

if you are planning on using yuour existing stepper motor and gearbox, do you have the exact same one they use with the same shaft size? are you going to use a rrd hobb?

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It's a different gearbox, however I'm assuming the square cover the bulldog is just for a cleaner look. It would be a leap of faith to hope that everything lines up perfect, and unfortunately they won't sell individual components separately unless its a bulk order. I'm also debating just buying the metal components off ali express and giving that a shot. While I'd prefer to spend a bit extra and know I'm getting good parts, it seems wasteful to just throw a perfectly good and fairly expensive geared stepper in the parts bin only to replace it with another very similar motor.